Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Movie Adaptation Review: The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince)

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.What is essential is invisible to the eye…"

I watched this movie half-way through during a flight and decided to finish watching it recently at home. I read the book back in 2012, and even though it's not exactly my favorite book, I know that it's an extremely popular classic book among readers. At the time, I didn't fully understood the whole meaning of the story; so I was hoping the movie adaptation would help me understand it better. And I was especially excited when I saw the incredibly beautiful trailer for this movie. So here's my non-spoiling review for the movie adaptation of The Little Prince.

The story begins by introducing a Little Girl (voiced by Mackenzie Foy) and her Mother (voiced by Rachel McAdams) who are waiting in line for an interview to enroll in Werth Academy. Despite their thorough preparation, the little girl failed the interview badly. To ensure her success in entering Werth Academy, the two moved to a new neighborhood near the school—and the Mother has prepared a packed study schedule for the Little Girl every single day. The Little Girl's life is perfectly planned until their neighbor, The Aviator (voiced by Jeff Bridges), managed to distract her from her routine. The Aviator shares with her a story of a young boy from a distant asteroid, The Little Prince (voiced by Riley Osborne). As the Little Girl grows closer to The Aviator, she neglects the schedule that her Mother prepared and embrace the fun adventures with The Aviator as a child that she is.My initial feeling about this movie was more or less the same with what I felt when I finished the book; I know there's a message behind the story, but I feel like I didn't understand it completely. So I went to the internet to read articles and discussions about the story to finally fathom the whole meaning. The movie adaptation itself isn't exactly the same as the book because there are a lot of additional scenes and characters added into it—I think just to make the movie a lot more interesting and also have a climax in the plot. But I do think that this movie delivered the theme of the story better to the audience.

"You mustn’t forget it. You become responsible—forever—for what you’ve tamed."

I won't be commenting too much on the voice actors because I do think they all did a fantastic job. But I will talk about the amazing animation, character design, and the beautiful colors. This movie is just so visually pleasing to the eyes, it makes me so happy even though I don't find the plot that interesting. There are two kinds of animation in this movie; the life-like one that portrays the Little Girl and The Aviator and then there's another style of animation for when they recounted the story of The Little Prince—which made the characters look like they're made from paper cutouts. I have to say that I love the paper-cutouts style better just because I find it a lot more unique and everything looks so cute, especially The Little Prince. Props to the people working behind this beautiful animation <3

Plot-wise, I do feel the story is pretty slow-paced up until the climax. That's why my favorite scene in the movie is probably the ending, which wraps everything up on a heartwarming note. And like I said earlier, the theme of the story about looking at the world through the hopeful eyes of a child is portrayed nicely through the movie. The adults in the movie are depicted as strict, almost robotic with all their routines and thoughts about what's important in life. But thankfully, at the end of the story, the Little Girl's mother seems to finally understand as she accompanied the Little Girl to look at the stars—not forcing her to follow strict schedules anymore.

Another thing that I absolutely love from this movie is the music! Which might not be much of a surprise since the film score is composed by Hans Zimmer—along with Richard Harvey. I've known Hans Zimmer for quite a while now because I always love the movie soundtracks that he composed. My favorite so far is probably his work for The Pirates of the Carribean movies. Several years ago I even made a CD especially filled with the movie soundtrack to listen all day; which is crazy because they're basically just instrumental music, but I love them! I think when the perfect music accompanies a movie, the experience watching it will be so much better. Below are two songs from the soundtrack which is sang by the French singer, Camille Dalmais. I think you'll get the tone of the movie just by listening to these songs, it's a perfect representation :)

In the end, I'm really satisfied with how visually pleasing this movie is, it's beautiful from beginning to end. If you love the book, I think you will definitely enjoyed this movie adaptation as well. It's an adorable movie that can be watched no matter what age you are and it will be great to watch it together as a family. I've also said in another post that I want to give the book a second try and read it in English (because the first time I read it in Indonesian). I'd like to see if I would get something different from when I first read it. Especially since now I've watched the movie and understands the theme better, I want to re-read the book with that in mind.

Have you watched this movie adaptation? What are your thoughts about it?

I just watched it last night in French version. And it was great. The little prince voice is soo cute. The movie is beautiful and do can be digest easier than the book. I'm curious bout the english version since there's James Franco in it and you said the voice actor were doing fantastic job.Thanks for the review

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“Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent.What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.”― Stephen King